U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,532 describes a system and process through which a user can access information pertinent to an object using a camera-equipped device. In that patent, an image of the object is captured by the device, the object is recognized using image recognition technology, an information address is returned to the device, and the information address is used to access information. A typical embodiment of that patent uses a camera-equipped mobile telephone to “point and click” on an object, and then uses information from the image to access a web site pertinent to the object. Herein the phrase “point and click” means to aim the camera-equipped device at an object, capture an image, and send the image or information derived from the image to a server. The server can be close to, or distant from, the device. The server can be part of the device or the device can be part of the server.
When a user “points and clicks” as described above, the object might or might not be in the server's database (the term “database” herein refers to any collection of information, and is not limited to relational or other software databases). If it is not, then a message can be sent to the user advising the user that no objects in the image were identified and that the user should make another attempt. If this occurs often then the user can execute several “point and click” operations without a successful link to information in which case the user will likely become disappointed. This problem worsens if relatively few of the objects in the user's environment are represented in the server database. The cause of this situation is that the user does not know which objects in his environment are in the server database.
Thus, a problem remains that users might not know what objects are in his field of view, for which information is available, and thus might not focus on those objects.